A studio blog of the development of "Negative Trees" using Media: Birch charcoal, compressed
charcoal, pastel (black), conté crayon (black and white), Ebony,
Kimberly 9XXB and Sketch & Wash #588 pencils (pencil wash), oil
pastel (black), acrylic (black and white), sumi-e ink, and Carters
14k gold ink. Each photograph shows the development of the work after the use of another media. Enjoy and be sure to leave a comment if all this inspires you to try new ideas in your work or if you just appreciate the process.

Birch Charcoal

I've
not worked that much with actual charcoal. Compressed charcoal was
what was required when I was taking drawing classes in college and I
developed a real love of this media. Somewhere in the past few works
I started using birch charcoal to start the work of art and it has
opened up a lot of new possibilities for me.

Compressed Charcoal

Compressed
charcoal is just plain magic on the surface. A good artist can make
it do all kinds of things. I like to smudge with my fingers and get
messy, which does limit what is going to happen on there but I'm not
going to stop going in there with this tactile approach to art. It
just comes natural for me.

Black Pastel

So
here's where it probably feels like I'm grabbing for straws when it
comes to going from compressed charcoal to black pastel. Compressed
charcoal is made up of just charcoal that is is squeezed up tight
while pastel is pigment embedded in clay. That clay body has a
totally different feel to it and gives a luster that is different
from charcoal. It might be subtle to the average viewer but I like to
play around with the contrast between the two media.

Conté Crayon

When
I discovered conté crayon in college I went crazy with it. I would
do drawings on large newsprint paper and fill up the entire sheet
with conté crayon marks. I would work up gradient shading with earth
colors that would go from “in your face” 3 dimensional effects on
out there into infinity. In this work I limited myself to two grades
of black and some fierce white markings.

Black Oil Pastel

Oil
pastel is a beast to work with in my opinion. I also feel that a lot
of artists use it in the easiest manner possible and never wrestle
with it to the point they bring out the best of what it can do. It
isn't an easy media to work with in any manner of speaking. Getting a
fine line out of it and have it go where you want it is about as easy
as drawing with a stick of butter. It comes in a limited amount of
colors and they don't blend very well, so it is easy to just go with
flat one dimensional images like an illustrator would do. For
whatever reason there is always a box of oil pastels in almost every
art studio. They are cheap and they do the job on short notice. I
don't remember when I got my hands on oil pastel but I have had a
love/hate relationship with them every since. My favorite use has
always been as a resist in mixed media works like watercolor. Finally
I dug in and had my epic battle with oil pastel in the “Clipper Sketchbook” series. As another artist commented somewhere in the
middle of that effort, I mastered oil pastel. None of that is
demonstrated here. I'm back to having fun with it. Black. Thick rich
velvet black in the middle of all these other media. Pencil comes
later. It mashes it up. Look for it.

Ebony pencil and Pink Pearl eraser

Ebony
pencil is just essential to the task. It can go from soft sensuous
pastel shading to deep velvet blacks on over to shiny carbon metal
sheen rich in electric visual amperage. It flicks and flies through
the previous marks like black lightning curling down the trunk of a
tree. And there's the sweet ghost maker called the “Pink Pearl”
eraser that smudges and blends to create layers upon layers of marks
that entices the eye into spatial wonderlands of nebula.

Kimberly
9XXB pencil

Kimberly
9XXB isn't my favorite pencil. The clay binder in it is like trying
to draw with shale rock. Thick and chunky feeling. It erases funny.
I've used a lot of different kinds of pencils and this one is at the
bottom of the barrel in my opinion. Never mind all that. It stands
its ground in the middle of all these other media. It appears
different from the other two pencils in there. It's like an old work
horse of a pencil. It gets the job done. It might not be as pretty as
all the rest but it is the bed rock of black. Deal with it.

Brush action over "Sketch and Wash" pencil

"Sketch and Wash" pencil and brush

I
bought the “Sketch and Wash” pencils around four years ago just
to play around with them. It's sort of like using a brush and water
to get shading instead of using an eraser. It's a different effect
that adds shading similar to working with brush and ink. It also goes
waterproof after it dries, which is nice. I'm having fun.

Black and white acrylic paint with brush and Ebony pencil

Acrylic
paint is pigment suspended in plastic. Plastic brings its own
qualities to the table here. Mars Black and Titanium White in lush
proportions of thick stew in the mix of carbon-based media of natural
binders. Applied fast and raw to make the edges visible where the
brush bites the paper in hungry chunks of impositions over previous
markings or out there in the empty white of paper where the marks hit
water left over from the pencil wash and thin out into fog. Later
sumi-e ink and gold ink with splash down or brush over and feel the
resist of the plastic body.

Sumi-e ink and brush

Sumi-e
ink is a land of it's own. No, an entire Universe of rich dark lands
thick with distant fogs. This ink was formulated in Asia, either
China or Japan. Each country has its own products with many distinct
qualities. No, I didn't grind the ink from ink stick and ink stone
for this work. I used ink from a bottle this time. If this were a
work on rice paper it would be freshly ground ink. That isn't the
case here. It slams over the forest of negative trees like dead winds
frozen in the thick whiteness.

Carters 14k gold ink and brush

This
bottle of Carters 14k gold ink came in a box of supplies from a
friend. It was dried up and looked like nothing but I knew what it
was immediately. The company was a major supplier of inks for 100
years before the family sold the company to a multi-national
corporation that immediately shut down all ink production in the
mid-1970's. I had seen it in art supply stores behind locked glass
cabinets. It was the stuff of serious calligraphy. I used it on rice
paper over sumi-e ink. I used it in mixed media art. It is the fire
of fairy workings in a burnt out forest of nothingness. It is the
magic of “make it grow” from Ferngully.

Detail photograph

There's
over 100 photographs like this one now. Maybe more tomorrow. This one
comes from the top right area of the painting. At the top of the
right tree. Negative tree still a little crisp around the edges from
the fire of purification that left the space empty. Again. Negative
trees where positive and negative were reduced to nothing without
malice or merit. Inside there is a fire that will never die. Of this
we are bound together as one forever. There will be work-ups of
photographs like this one on my Zazzle store of on-line products
using my art. Check it out and watch for them. Bookmark it. Tell your
friends about all of this. We're creating work that has never been
done before. You are following it as it happens. Ride the wave. Love.

It
takes some work to work this way. Stopping in between to photograph
the developments after each mark is made. I would venture to say that
the process of doing all of this hurts the work, as one can see the
difference between this one and those before and as more come
afterwards in this series of works dedicated to black and white. I'm
holding color hostage. After a very productive and busy autumn, I'm
taking a break and focusing on basic information for a short period.
After that it will all be different. That's the way things go. Negative Trees | audio of poem and harmonica on ReverbNation.

For
more information about my work be sure to visit my web page. Links to
other web sites including this blog site are on my “contact” page
where you will also find my e-mail address and postal address.